Mac OS X update

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Amy McCray

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Dec 3, 2002
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North Prairie, WI
I am running OS X v. 10.3. Went to upgrade (online) and it wants to download v. 10.3.9.

Does OS X v.10.4 (and up) have to be purchased? Dumb question, I know, but haven't been able to keep up as usual.
faintthud.gif


Thanks much!
 
Amy,

OS 10.4 (Tiger) is the most current version, and, unfortunately, you have to buy it. It’s not just an upgrade from earlier versions.

I very reluctantly upgraded to 10.4 about six months ago, but I’m glad I did. It has some new features that are simply amazing, and, of course, it is remarkably stable.

However, OS 10.5 (Leopard) is in the beta stage. There are “sneak previews” of it on their web site. If you can hold off for a while, the newer version should be available in a couple of months.
 
Thanks. I've been pulling my hair out trying to get this "new-but-not set-up-for-two-years" PowerMac G4 up and running. Trust me,we don't want to go there.

First, no matter what I tried to do, it required a password be entered. I had not yet established one, but no matter what I put in, I got a window saying it was incorrect. When going through the process to set a new PW, it required verification of the current one before allowing the change to take place. Well, DUH, if I knew that, I wouldn't need to set up a new one, would I?!

After an hour w/ tech support they threw their hands up and said to do a clean install of OS X. I didn't have time to do right away so shut down and planned on doing it the next day since I had already blown the entire day just trying to get one piece of software loaded.

The next day I turned on the machine and it never asked for a password. Go figure. I proceeded to download Firefox and Thunderbird. But everytime I install any software and do a restart or a complete shutdown, the Firefox/TB desktops icons are gone when I start up again.

Tech support says they must not have installed properly. Also, they don't show up in the applications folder.

They told me to download the OS X update and then reload FF/TB. Well, it took 9 1/2 hrs. to download the OS Update and another 1 1/2 hrs. for FF/TB. And of course, the exact same thing has happened again.

I guess I'll have to do the clean reinstall after all.

I'm so disgusted. I'm a diehard Mac fan from '87. Always took the computer out of the box, plugged it in and got to work.

Sorry for the long rant. Maybe an upgrade to Tiger would be a better solution.

Thanks again.
 
Amy,

I don’t know how much time you have (read: desperate), but you may not have to do a Clean Install. As you know, you’d have to start from scratch with all of your files and preferences. Personally, I’d rather have a root canal.

If you can’t easily install the new software, it sounds like some of your system files are corrupted. You may be able to fix them by booting from one of your Mac OS Installation Disks and running “Disk First Aid”. DFA will repair (or at least report) on a multitude of problems.

And, if you are having problems with your administrator or user passwords, there is a way to reset them from the Installation Disks, too. I have never had to do that, so I cannot give you a step-by-step, but there is a way. Instructions are probably in the “Help” menu on the Install DVD somewhere.

Also, if you don’t already have a copy, I might suggest you grab a copy of Alsoft’s <u>Disk Warrior</u>. Norton’s <u>Disk Doctor</u>, which I had been using for years with OS 9, has turned into “Disk Mortician” when OS X was released.

Don’t use Norton Utilities to try to fix anything on OS X! NDD corrupts directory files beyond repair! It got so bad for me, when I booted, I was taken directly into the Terminal Mode – which was so confusing to me that I couldn’t even find my way out of it.

Try running “Disk First Aid” from the Installation Disk before you do anything else.
 
Bill,

Great minds think alike. I ran Disk First Aid last night and it found/repaired numerous Disk Permissions errors. So today will start over.

Interestingly, this morning I'm getting all the windows again asking for passwords and the PW's I put in are all coming back as Incorrect. grrrrrrrrrr. I wigged out and just started hitting the enter key multiple times and it finally gave up and let me in! Go figure. When this all first started a couple of days ago, I did boot up with the Installation disk to reset the passwords. That Keychain business is a royal Pain.

I used NDD all the time and loved it. Switched over to TechTools Pro some time back though and that did a great job too. I do need to get the OS X version based on your advice. Thanks so much for the head's up on that front. Perhaps I'll try the Disk Warrior you mention.

I'm going now to try to reload Firefox. If it disappears again after a Restart, I'm going to try to zap the PRAM and if that doesn't work, I'm shutting down until I can get the new disk utility.

I have surrounded myself with 3 excellent reference books on OS X, which is helping quite a bit. Between them all, they cover quite a bit. It just takes so darned much time to do the research and of course many times what they say to do doesn't work.

Thanks so much for all your help.
 
I'm kind of new to OS X, but I have Tiger on one of my machines, and really do like it. (Thought I'd never say that.) OS X is based on the idea that multiple users have individual profiles on the machine. See if you can figure out how to get into Single User Mode, and I think you can avoid all the permission problems. I bought David Pogue's "Missing Manual" book for Tiger and find it very helpful. If you are still using an older version of X you can probably find an older book for it at a drastically reduced price at Half Price Books or the book department of MicroCenter (or whatever your local versions of these stores are).
:cool: Rick


It's so cool to be able to save any document as a PDF file right out of the Print dialog box....
 
I've heard the "Missing Manual" series is great. I had forgotten about it and will keep an eye out for it.

The reference manuals I have were all nicely discounted because they were for older versions. One advantage of being ancient.

Ended up doing a clean install after all but the good news is that everything is going well so far - knock on wood. Haven't gotten around to reloading individual software yet so will wait and see.

Thanks all!

Amy
 
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